Tyrian

The Good
I doubt even The Reap is better than this one; Tyrian is by far the best, most advanced and funniest vertical shooter ever to be developed. Designed by one of my favorite trackers, Alexander Brandon, this game features delightful graphics, wonderful soundtrack (especially with more advanced sound boards), a genuinely awesome and amazingly fast game engine. What truly makes this game unique, though, is its insane sense of humour - starting with the plot, which is practically mad and filled with bizarre twists, turns and characters. Secrets abound in Tyrian - there are at least a dozen secret levels (some more secret than others) and Version 2.0 adds weird subgames (Zinglon's Ale etc.) which add a lot to the replay value. The game also features from its first version secret subgames (Engage, Ninja etc.) which also add a lot to it, and the jukebox in the setup is simply astonishing. In short, a perfect game which deserved a lot more than it got.

The Bad
The only caveat in this game is its inability to run on anything stronger than a Pentium. It constantly crashes on my P2, which is a shame, shame indeed.

The Bottom Line
A great classic, best shooter ever, the first game for which I put Raptor aside. Simply brilliant.